YOUTH OUTREACH VOLUNTEER NEEDED

Position Description

YAAPHA's work provides community based, child focused and educational oriented programs which work to provide long term support to the at risk children of northern Tanzania.

YAAPHA needs volunteers who are willing to help with the many endeavors that the organization participates in.

A youth outreach volunteer at this placement would be expected to go out with staff into the areas where youth at risk reside; evaluate the kind of life style they are forced to live in and determine the critical support they need to enable them to leave their present situations and become employed in occupations that provide them with a respectful way of making a living for themselves and sometimes their families. These observations by the volunteers and staff would be documented in individual files and kept at YAAPHA's office.

Unfortunately many of these at risk youth have been forced into prostitution at a very young age and see no way out of their situations. YAAPHA staff work hard to reach out to these young people and explain to them the dangers encountered in their present way of life and a avenue to pursue that would enable them to live a safer and more comfortable life.

Counseling for these youth goes side by side with teaching them basic entrepreneurship skills such as how to manage small businesses, marketing strategies as well as customer care skills where this could help them to broaden their horizons of creating job opportunities.

A youth outreach volunteer may also be involved in the organization's community based child support program. Organization at times got report children/youth at risk who live with no parental support in the communities. Staff from the YAAPHA visit these children and assess their current situations and what help they most urgently need. They provide them with school supplies when appropriate and inform them about children rights.

A mature and emotionally stable volunteer with the basic skill and ability of working with youth/kids who are at risk would be a great asset at this placement.

Volunteer Tasks Required

Youth at Risk Outreach Program

A youth outreach volunteer at this placement would be expected to work alongside the local staff from the organization where they go out into the streets and villages to reach out to the street kids that are at risk and do assessments of each child's situation. Then offer various means of support for them to enable them to improve their current lot in life.

Counseling

A youth outreach volunteer may be asked to participate in various forms of counseling for street kids. This may include sessions on the high risk of contracting AIDS and preventive measures that should be used to lesson the danger. Many of these street kids are sexually abused girls, as well as young girls who are doing prostitution as a result of the hardships of life they and sometimes their families live in.

Life Skills Training

A youth outreach volunteer would be expected to work with the local staff to provide life skills training to the youth at risk. This training would be mainly provided to street kids and young girls who are being used for prostitution.

Office Work

A youth outreach volunteer would be expected to assist in various office duties e.g.-- consulting with the youth that come to the office seeking help, organizing the office files, helping to organize the projects and recording data into the computer.

Entrepreneurship Training

A youth outreach volunteer may be asked to help with different training projects on entrepreneurship to the older youth to teach them how to be self-reliance. The tasks may include teaching how to run small businesses, marketing strategies and customer care.